A senior Vatican cardinal has today condemned as "iniquitous" plans to allow gay marriages and adoptions in Spain, one of Europe's most Catholic countries.

The attack on the Spanish Government's Bill to legalise same-sex marriages is an early indication of how the new papacy can be expected to adhere rigidly to the precedents put in place by Pope John Paul II, and supported by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his role as Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

The new Pope has described homosexuality as objectively disordered and an intrinsic moral evil.

The Bill was adopted on Thursday by deputies in Spain's lower house of parliament, making Spain the third country to recognise gay marriages and the first in Europe to allow gay marriages and adoption of children by gay couples.

The Bill also allows couples of the same sex to inherit from one another as well as receive retirement benefits from their working spouses.

The legislation will take effect a few months after it has undergone the formality of being adopted by the Spanish Senate.

The Vatican denunciation was made by Cardinal Alfonso Lopes Trujillo, head of the Pontifical Council on the Family, in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Asked about the Spanish Bill, he said:"We cannot impose the iniquitous on people.

"On the contrary, precisely because they are iniquitous the Church makes an urgent call for freedom of conscience and the duty to oppose.

"A law as profoundly iniquitous as this one is not an obligation, it cannot be an obligation. One cannot say that a law is right simply because it is law."

He called on municipal officials asked to perform gay marriages to object on grounds of conscience and to refuse to go through with the ceremony, even if it meant losing their jobs.

He said: "They should exercise the same conscientious objection asked of doctors and nurses against a crime such as abortion.

"This is not a matter of choice: all Christians... must be prepared to pay the highest price, including the loss of a job."

The Cardinal went on to argue that the Church does not discriminate against gays, but said they needed help.

"The Church does not accept homosexuals being the target of jokes, insults and inhumane expressions. They are people who deserve all our love, our support and our aid."

Spain is, like Italy, a Catholic country but in both countries adherence to some Catholic dictats, such as on the use of contraception, is low.

Traditionalist Catholics are hoping the new Pope will be able to assert his moral authority to bring the faithful back into line on issues such as birth control and the exclusion from communion Catholics who remarry after divorce.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia are among those who will be attending Sunday’s inauguration mass for Pope Benedict. Belgium and the Netherlands already allow same-sex marriages, but not adoptions by homosexual couples.

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